Today is January 2nd, 2011. What that means is that it’s the day I remove all traces of Christmas 2010 from the Jones residence. Taking down all of the festive holiday stuff, paired with the fact that all of the excitement of the season is now a memory sort of makes me sad. It happens every year, and though I’m happy to have a living room that has once again seemingly doubled in size, it also makes me long for just a touch more comfort food.

Today I decided to try some vegan cornbread stuffing, some crunchy roasted potatoes with garlic, and a nice salad to round it all out.

I started with the roasted potatoes.

Crunchy Roasted Potatoes with Garlic

2 large baking potatoes

olive oil

Salt, pepper and cayenne pepper

6 cloves of garlic

Preheat oven to 375.

Wash and scrub two large baking potatoes and cut into cubes. Toss them with olive oil and lay them in a single layer on a non-stick baking sheet. Sprinkle with sea salt, fresh ground pepper and cayenne pepper (to taste).

Bake for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven, sprinkle with a bit more olive oil, and add approximately 6 medium to large cloves of garlic, sliced into smallish pieces.

Use spatula to turn potatoes to brown on other sides. Add garlic to baking sheet and return to oven for additional 20 minutes or so.

The result should be some nicely browned, crispy potatoes and some delicious roasted garlic. Mmmm…

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Vegan Cornbread Stuffing

1 bag Pepperidge Farm cornbread stuffing

1 T. vegan margarine (Earth Balance)

1 T. olive oil

1 small red onion

1 c. chopped celery

2 c. vegetable stock

3/4 T. poultry seasoning

salt & pepper

In medium to large skillet, melt vegan margarine with 1 T. olive oil. Add poultry seasoning, celery and onion and saute until softened.

In casserole dish, put cornbread stuffing mix, celery and onion mixture and 2 c. vegetable stock. Stir to combine and moisten all of the stuffing mix.